Armchair Mystery Theatre

Armchair Mystery Theatre is a 60-minute UK television anthology mystery series. Thirty-four episodes aired from 1960–1965. It was hosted by Donald Pleasence and produced by Leonard White. It was a spin-off from the successful Armchair Theatre  series.

Guest stars included Edward Woodward, Cyril Cusack, Sam Wanamaker, Ron Moody, Tom Bell, Denholm Elliott, and Sybil Thorndike.

Archival Status
A large number of episodes from this series have been junked, out of the thirty-four episodes that were transmitted, twenty-five episodes are missing from the archives and only ten episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings. Two further episodes were additionally made, but not included in the run. "The Cupboard" by Ray Rigby, was originally scheduled for the first series, but was postponed due to a real-life murder case that had similarities to the plot in the episode, that was concurrently being tried in the courts; the episode was eventually transmitted later that year as part of the Armchair Theatre run. Another episode "And Where It Stops" by Alan Seymour, had to be stopped mid-way during filming as they ran out of studio time, producer Leonard White notes "it was a difficult teleplay to tackle and Voytek had designed an extremely complex set. I'd hoped to win the challenge, but not so." A twenty minute excerpt of the unfinished episode survives as a 2" 405-line videotape copy.